


I found you again

by RomanticNoldo



Category: Shannara Series - Terry Brooks
Genre: Brotherhood, Deathfic, sadfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26338708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomanticNoldo/pseuds/RomanticNoldo
Summary: Palance's death, through Balinor's eyes





	I found you again

It happened so suddenly that he couldn't stop it.

The moment before, his brother was motionless, frozen in an instant of confusion. And the next...

Balinor could only stare at Palance's agonizing body, feeling like he was the one who had taken the blow that had wounded him.

_"I give you back your brother, you fool! [1]"_

Stenmin's voice, hissing and evil, came clear, a moment before Palance's body was thrown down the stairs, like something no more of importance, broken and ready to be destroyed.

He had killed him. Stenmin had killed his brother. He had handled him like a puppet, and now he had cut the strings.

He set out in pursuit, screaming. He was going insane. He felt that if he reached him he could turn into a monster himself, to make him suffer as much as Palance was suffering. And he didn't care.

But he knew too soon that he had to give up. The traitor had fled, slipping away like a snake.

He wanted to chase him again, see him beg for mercy in a corner, let him crawl like the worm he was, make him suffer, hit him until he stopped breathing, see his own sword soaked in his blood.

But he couldn't leave Palance alone.

Not now that he was dying.

He went back. He felt as if he were moving underwater, each of the few steps he had to take too slow. Maybe not arriving would have been better. Palance's face, so pale and suffering, already looked like that of a corpse. Only the imperceptible movement of the lips, the faint and fast breathing, revealed the last fragile fragment of life.

He couldn't hold back the tears. During his life he had fought and overcome all kinds of difficulties.

But he couldn't face his death.

_Palance... if only..._

If only he could have stopped Stenmin.

If only he hadn't gone.

Maybe they both wouldn't be there.

Instinctively, his hand ran to the scar. The symbol of their rupture. A break that had healed only a few minutes earlier. At that moment, he should have rejoiced that his brother had come to his senses. Instead he was alone in a chasm of pain into which he fell without being able to cling.

He was only able to hug his brother, as if he were still a child.

Palance was no longer a child. But his life had been equally short.

Too short.

But equally cruel.

_But at least_ , he thought without taking his eyes off the other's face, _at least I found you again._

**Author's Note:**

> [1]: Direct quote from the book.


End file.
